Crows 'unpredictable'

Brent Diamond

Brenton Sanderson says the Crows will be missing about 10 players from their best 22 on Sunday. Photo: Sebastian Costanzo

ADELAIDE coach Brenton Sanderson believes the Crows will be much more unpredictable in attack without Kurt Tippett as the club trials life without him in Sunday's NAB Cup hitout against the Saints and the Power.

Sanderson said the club has focused on a variety of options up forward rather than pencilling in a Tippett replacement, although ex-Bomber Josh Jenkins is expected to play a telling part in acting as a decoy for Taylor Walker this season.

''Obviously, losing Tippett, we've got some different options in our forward line now,'' he said. ''I've mentioned [Lewis] Johnston and [Tom] Lynch, [Shaun] McKernan, [Josh] Jenkins, [Ricky] Henderson and [Jason] Porplyzia can play different sorts of roles down there as well, plus we've got some kids coming through like [Sam] Kerridge and [Brad] Crouch, who can play forward, and are big-bodied, young players. We can give the opposition a lot of different looks in our forward line; we're not just going to replace Kurt Tippett with another lookalike.''

Sanderson said the Crows will be missing about 10 players from their best 22 on Sunday but the squad was still hungry for success. ''I think we'll see a Crows team this week that is still hungry to win even though it's mid-February. It doesn't matter who plays.''

After giving Swans fans a taste of what to expect in an intra-club match this week, Tippett will be forced to wait until June 22 to make his next appearance because of his 11-game suspension as part of the Crows' salary cap saga.